for him as someone who preferred a life of solitude, and also could not abide the compulsory changes in dress.' Bediuzzaman's refusal to abandon his Islamic cübbe and turban were doubtless made a pretext for the harassment he received there. Following this he was moved to a rented house immediately opposite the police station. On two floors, it was a traditional wooden house with the ground floor used as a store for logs and an outside staircase leading to the two upstairs rooms. Bediuzzaman remained here for the seven years he was in Kastamonu.
It was during his first weeks in Kastamonu that Bediuzzaman attracted the first of those who were to be his closest students here, `Çayci Emin'. He was an exile the same as Bediuzzaman. A Kurdish tribal chief, he had been exiled to Kastamonu some ten years previously and now made his livelihood by running a tea-stall in the courtyard of the Nasrullah Mosque. It was here that he first saw Bediuzzaman. Bediuzzaman won his heart when he warned him against approaching him, but Çayci Emin was not one to be deterred by any possible harm from officialdom and thereafter did all he could to assist Bediuzzaman. Of Bediuzzaman's other close students in the town of Kastamonu was Mehmed Feyzi, who had a scholarly background. These two most constantly attended Bediuzzaman - as far as they were able, securing his daily needs, and Mehmed Feyzi in particular acting as his scribe and assistant with the Risale-i Nur.
Bediuzzaman was virtually confined to his house, going out only once or twice a week either up into the surrounding mountains or climbing up to the citadel which dominates the town. He spent his time either writing the Risale-i Nur or correcting the hand-written copies of existing parts, or in worship, prayer and supplication, or in contemplation. The nights he spent in prayer. He was busy with the same activities when he went out into the mountains, and on the way there even; he never passed an idle moment. Mehmed Feyzi tells how when accompanying him, Bediuzzaman on horseback would be correcting copies of the Risale-i Nur or listening to himself reading